Car and Corps

After a week of driving my new car I now know I made the most genius decision to buy this car. It is a pure joy to drive and it looks bitchin' to boot. As much as I love the car I can't help but feel sad about my little ol' Corolla. I've driven that for 9 years and when I look at it I swear it looks sad. Crazy I know, but you have to understand that little Corolla has been a trooper and the day I was to pick up my the Accord, my little Toyota tripped over 166,000 miles. Yeah, he doesn't look brand new any more but he also looks and drives extremely well for a car that's 11 years old. Heck, it looks and runs better than some cars that are only a few years old! Even though I feel sadness letting the Corollacoaster go I find comfort in knowing he's going to a good home and not to some stranger whom I don't know.

I noticed the other day in my new car that the driver's side low beam headlight was out so Monday after work I attempted to replace the bulb. It was a little tricky to get to but what was weird is I could not twist the bulb to unlock it despite using all my strength. Sure, I'm no Hanz and Franz but I'm no girly-man either. ($1 to classic SNL) Feeling silly I could not do it myself I drove to an auto place to see if they could get the blub out but no dice. Ok, whew! Now I know I'm not a total wimp. I decide to take the car straight to the mothership... the Honda dealer. They replaced it just fine although I didn't ask what it took to get the job done. While I had my car at the dealer I had them give the car a thorough inspection and an oil change. Yes, most people take a used car to get it checked out BEFORE they buy but cut me some slack. I'm not totally stupid and would be able to tell if a car needed work before I bought said car. I just wanted to see if they could point out anything that may need to be done in the near future. Well, they thought the car was in immaculate shape cosmetically and mechanically with the only issue being a battery that was nearing time to be replaced, which I had them take care of while I was there. The dealer noted that the previous owner took really good care of the car and had the car serviced at a Honday dealer as evident by the replacement brakes being genuine Honda parts. Cool beans. All this news on how great my new car is made me beam like a proud papa and gave me peace of mind for my road trip to Chicago this weekend which brings me to... Cavaliers Alumni Corps!

This weekend is the first rehearsal for the Cavaliers Alumni Corps in good ol' Rosemont, IL. 2008 is the Cavaliers' 60th Anniversary and as part of the year-long celebration the corps is going to field a one-year only anniversary corps... an alumni corps to be specific. It'll be similar to the Madison Scouts Alumni Reunion Project Corps in '06 but in usual Cavalier fashion it'll be better. :-p Just kidding. No I'm not. LOL I've actually been asked to take a leadership role in the snareline to represent the later generations of members and be the "center" of that group. It'll be cool to play with guys from the 50's all the way through age-outs from '07. I played through the music tonight we've gotten thus far to prepare and the more I play the more excited I get to participate in something that'll knock the socks off of people. What's also sweet is I'll be in the drumline with a couple guys I marched with as well as a fellow member of Music City Legend who marched snare in the Cavaliers in the 80's.

I'll be sure to report back on the weekend's festivities early next week. Stay cool like the other side of the pillow. L8r.

New Car!

Well folks, after test driving three different 300zx's, researching countless others on the net, including one that figured to be a poorly executed scam, I finally bought a car. Which one you ask? Not so fast... let me keep you in suspense... and no cheating by scrolling down.

After driving a few Z's I came to the realization that my hunch about the first one (the red one I blogged about) was right. There was something wrong with the engine. It had been awhile since I drove a Z so I initially thought I just didn't remember correctly what they drove like but I am very glad I ended up passing on that car.

After that I test drove a '93 convertible in Indiana that caught my attention due to it's unique color called "Cocoa Bronze". There weren't too many Z's made in that color which was neat but despite driving well and looking good on the outside the interior was horrible. I'm not being picky either. Penny and I both felt dirty after being in that car. I think she's still picking cat hairs off her face. Gross.

Next up was a '92 Z I discovered at a used car lot just over the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN. I was impressed with the overall quality of the car inside and out, the engine performed very well and purred like a kitten. There were a couple items that needed to be taken care of but the price they were asking was a good deal. I especially liked that the car was the same blue color I had when I owned a '90 Z many moons ago. However, at this same car lot my eyes landed on something totally different than what I had been looking at. Penny and I were both smitten by this other car while peeking in the window so much she said, "I think you just found your car." How right she was.

After test driving this other car I discovered I could have the best of both worlds. Reliable transportation AND something fun to drive. Not to mention, my son would actually be able to ride in the car with Penny and I. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my latest acquisition... a 2004 Honda Accord EX.


Sure it's not a 300ZX but this thing looks and drives like a brand new car. The amount of power and acceleration it has really took my by surprise and I found myself enjoying the drive more than the Z. I love everything about the car... the color, the styling, the super-clean interior, the wheels, the roominess, the Mammoth Cave-size trunk, the kickin' stereo, the tinted windows, the price I got... the list goes on. I negotiated new tires at no cost to me since it looked like the rubber was the original and was a little thin on tread. Yea me. :-p

I'll be taking delivery of the car Thursday after work which will be hard to wait for me since I feel like it's the eve of Christmas Eve. This really is the perfect decision for not only me but now for my sister since she can have my Corolla now. I wasn't going to buy a car just so she could have my old one but I'm glad things worked out well for everyone. I've driven that little Corolla for 9 1/2 years so it'll be sad to let it go but I know it'll be going to a good home.

Aye carumba

Not unexpected but I'm very confused what to do about the 300ZX I saw Sunday. The car was absolutely beautiful and I kid you not when I say the interior looked new. I've not seen many used cars with an interior that clean, especially one that is 17 years old. Yeah, about that number... 17 is spooking me. I know the car has very low miles on it for it's age (66k) but when a car is that old age is a factor whether it's been driven hard or babied. I'd feel better if this was a second car for me and my little Corolla was a backup should something need to be fixed on the Z. However, my sister is in dire need of a car since her engine blew and I told her I'd give her my car if I bought one.

There's also the issue that the backseat of a 300ZX 2+2 is not meant for human occupation. I knew it'd be small but there is literally no way a single adult could sit back there as Penny found out the hard way. She sacrificed her comfort riding back there all crooked and hunched over during my test drive. I wasn't planning on carting around adults in my backseat but I did figure a 2+2 would accommodate myself, Penny and my son. Well, scratch that. The backseat isn't even roomy enough for my son in his car seat. I brought Hayden's child seat to see how it fit and there's really no head or leg room for him. With a booster seat in place of the full child seat he'd probably fit ok but he's still too small for a booster seat. The car has no airbags since it was made before the law required them so he could sit in the front seat as Kentucky state law only requires a child his size to be in a child seat with a 5-point harness. Obviously the safest place in a car for any size child is the back seat which is something on my mind. Besides, if Hayden is in the front seat then I might as well think of the car as a two-seater. The Z I owned many moons ago was a coupe so it had no back seat which I still prefer from a pure sports car perspective, however I can see having the back seat area in the 2+2 makes for a nice space accessible from the interior to stash things like a laptop bag, jacket... whatever.

I really feel like if I don't buy this car I'll never see a 90's Z car in such good condition for an affordable price but that's a horrible reason to buy a car. It'd be different if I had disposable income and this was to supplement the car I already have but this would be my primary means of transportation. Most of what I'm writing is negative but I really do love this car. Perhaps my mind is doing its best to talk my heart out of the car by rationalizing and making sense. LOL

Even after talking the guy down $1000 more I told him I'd take a couple days to decide so I've got some mind-making to do in the next 24-36 hours.

Kick the tires

I made arrangements yesterday to go see the 300ZX on Sunday morning. I'm excited yet nervous because I'm afraid you're right, Chris. For those of that didn't catch his comment on my last post, here it is:

Hate to tell you but, the second you take the trip to look at it, it's already too late. Great car though, definitely worth a look.

He probably hit the nail on the head but I'd like to think I'm older and wiser these days. Well, I'm older anyway. I purposefully did not arrange to have the loan's blank check for this weekend so I could take a day or two after I see the car to make my decision one way or another. While I don't plan to make any offer this weekend if I like the car, I do want to discuss the asking price which is still over the blue book value. He's already come down almost two-grand from his original price but we're going have to come down more if I'm going to seriously consider buying.

I'll post back with my thoughts after seeing the Z. L8r.

To Z or not to Z

Stupid me, I like to tease myself and search on sites like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com for automobiles I find desirable. One such car I like to search for is a Nissan 300ZX in the 1990-1996 model range. 1990 was the first year of that body style which went through the 1996 model year when Nissan stopped selling the 300ZX in this country. That style Z continued until 1999 in Japan then was officially retired...forever. Boo. I was all excited when Nissan announced the return of the Z a few years ago but I was immediately disappointed to see what the new 350Z looked like. Something was missing from the allure of the 90's Z car, and what's interesting is I'm alone in that line of thought. The 90's Z is something revered among import sports car enthusiasts as the best Z car ever built.

Anyway, I'm way off on a tangent already. About a month ago I searched for 90-96 300ZX's and after weeding through the junked up ones, automatic transmissions (wtf... on a Z?) and those that simply had too many miles I found a pristine 1990 2+2 with only 66k miles on it for a decent price. I contacted the seller and this thing looks and sounds immaculate with everything stock and no gotchas like a replaced or rebuilt engine. From all the poorly maintained Z's I've come across in searches this one shines like a diamond in the rough. One drawback is that's it's in Ohio. It's just north of Cincinnati so it's not horrible but not ideal.

This brings me to my dillema. I've had an affinty for the 90's Z's ever since they hit showroom floors 17 years ago. Nine years ago I bought a dark blue '90 Z Coupe largely on an impulse, and despite not being able to own it for long (insurance was killing me) I loved every second of driving that car. Well, except the time it had some mechanical issues that I had to take care of but I loved that car more than I have any other car I've owned. This is my chance to drive a Z again but on the other hand I'd be going from currently having no car payment to having one. I'm trying to balance fiscal responsibility with lust for a car and frankly I'm torn. I want to see this car in person to give it a thorough inspection and see if my attachment is real or just fond memories. Even though the car is in great condition and has very low miles I do have to consider the car is 17 years old. On the plus side the brakes and timing belt were just replaced at 60k miles so those big ticket items are taken care of but what may also be on down the road to fix? I can debate myself all night.

A factor I keep replaying in my head over and over is I may not find a stock 90's Z of this vintage is such good condition again. Well, at least for an affordable price. The farther we get away from 1996 the fewer and fewer Z's in condition such as this will exist.

Stay tuned.

Time flies...

... when you're having fun. Or something like that. Heh-heh. It's been 2 months since my last post and really a few months before that since my last post about my life. Since it'd be a humongous post if I tried to catch up all at one time I'll just cover the highlights of the last several months. After that I hope to resume to blogging more regular. I know, I know... I've said it so many times before but this time I'll be making a more concerted effort. Anywho, here's a Reader's Digest version of my summer...


Rollercoaster Heaven

This summer was quite eventful with drum corps but I'd be remiss if I didn't say something about two rollercoasters that are simply cooler than the other side of the pillow. Penny and I went to Kings Island which is just north of Cincinnati two back-to-back days this past May. As luck would have it a new rollercoaster was opening the first day we were there called Firehawk and we wanted to be one of the first to ride it. We looked at the line and didn't think it'd be long but it ended up being 3 hours in line because they were only running one train and testing everything. That amount of time in line is not my cup of tea but we wanted to ride the thing too much to bail. We were a little nervous because of the amount of time they were spending testing the train before we got on and Penny's seat was cause for close inspection... while she was strapped in! As you might imagine that made her just a little more nervous. They ended up sending us off on the ride and wow... what an awesome ride! The feeling of flying like a bird is truly amazing and I HIGHLY recommend this ride should you find yourself at Kings Island.

The next coaster I have to speak about is the Beast. Basically this is the most bad ass rollercoatser on the planet and no matter how many times you ride it you want to go back for more. It's about 4 minutes long, it covers 35 acres and is set back in the woods to enhance the story of the Beast. It won't really do justice to experiencing the ride for yourself but here's a video I took while riding the Beast in the front car with Penny by my side. :-)

I hid my camera when we approached the top of both drop hills because they have surveillance cameras at the top. They have been known to confiscate pictures that riders have taken due to copyright laws or whatever. I doubt they'd have done anything had they seen my camera but I didn't feel like taking a chance.


The iPhone

The next notable event that occurred was me ditching Sprint for my cell phone service to become a proud owner of an iPhone. As I posted back in January, I was enamored by this phone ever since Steve Jobs unveiled it to the world. Sure, it was perhaps stupid to pay $600 for a phone but I gotta tell ya, this phone has actually exceeded my expectations and I really don't know how I could go back to a regular cell phone.

I ended up buying my iPhone the day it launched but not by planning. I just stopped by the AT&T store on my way home from work to check out the scene and much to my surprise there was not a long line. So, I called Penny and told her where I was, she met me at the store and about 30 minutes later I had my very own iPhone.

I'm really glad when Penny bought me a CD player for my car I chose one with a "Line In" jack on the front so I can plug my iPhone in and play all my music on that via the built-in iPod. It is so much more handy in the car not having to fumble through CD's anymore.

I must tell you though, I am on my third iPhone. After keeping oh-so-good care of my phone for over 3 months I was showing my phone to someone and I careslessly let it slip out of my hand. I watched in horror as it hurdled towards the concrete sidewalk in slow motion. There it laid on the ground. It looked so pitiful lying there with it's glass cracked like a big spider web. The fact I had really f'ed up my iPhone still hadn't registered and to my amazement everything about the phone still worked, including the touch sensitive screen. If it weren't for the cracked glass the phone would have been in perfect working order. Anywho, I brought the phone to the Apple Store in Louisville and found out the glass breaking by an accident like mine is not covered by the warranty so I had to pay $250 for a replacement. Ouch. Well, the replacement was obviously a refurb that had outstanding issues like a battery that didn't last a day and the fact it liked to reboot by itself throughout the day. The Windows-based smartphone I had liked to reboot or lockup all the time but that's just Windows. I felt that was unacceptable for the price I paid so I took the replacement iPhone back. The staff at the Apple Genius Bar didn't fuss at all and gave me another replacement phone that has been trouble-free and seems to hold an even better charge than my original phone, which was pretty darned good. Woo-hoo!


Drum Corps

Next up is my summer with Music City Legend. I was asked to join the Board of Directors when a position was left vacant after a resignation and after much thought I went ahead and accepted. Most of the heavy-lifting was already done for the year so my contribution would be dealing with anything that came up during the remainder of the season. I still feel like I'm winging it having never been involved on the administrative side of a drum corps but it does seem like my input has been valuable thus far. Since the end of the season we've added two more great people to the board and I feel like MCL is poised to really start growing some firm roots to be around for many years to come.

Rewinding a bit, as a member this past season was amazing. No, we didn't make finals but just missing by one place perhaps generated more buzz about the corps in Rochester than had we made finals. There were several people on finals day telling us we were their favorite of ALL the corps and arguably could be the best corps ever not to make finals. We were a smaller corps but by really buckling down, coming together, adding some key people to fill holes and dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" to the show we were a crowd favorite. It was also really cool that Penny and I got to perform the ending of the show together. As I was lying "dead" on the field her character comes up and shoots our contra soloist in the heart for betraying her and I provided the sound effect by popping a rimshot that sounds loud as hell on the video. Cool beans. :->

Despite a lackluster performance I had a blast on I&E night at DCA. My muscles never really got warmed-up so I had to skip some things I couldn't play which made for a solo that wasn't exactly what I wrote considering I had to make some things up on the fly. Granted, much of my solo last year was ad lib, but those moments were scripted ahead of time. Frank Nash and I spoke that evening and I think we were both affected by tension and brain farts. Haha! Regardless, I had a good time and my shirt made the judges laugh. Heh, even Jeff Prosperie caught me in the lobby to tell me he loved my shirt. It was awesome to meet Frank Nash, especially the night before he was to be inducted to the Hall of Fame. You can check out my '07 DCA solo here.

Cheering on my fellow corps-mate, Daniel Scott, being first on in the snare category was great because I watched him grow as a snare drummer all summer. I kept pestering him to register for a solo and was afraid he'd not do it, but despite being nervous he did well for a first-timer having never done any I&E before.

Even though it took time away from my warm-up I thoroughly enjoyed talking to a young boy and his father. They were watching me warm-up and I broke the ice by talking to them. I could see the twinkle in the boy's eye which reminded me at his age. He was so enthusiastic about my drum, the kind of sticks I was using and what I was playing. I also got a kick out of a 3-year old girl and her parents who happened by during my warm-up. She was carrying a small toy tom-tom with a strap around her neck banging on it like a pro. She was enamored by my drum so I took it off my stand and let her play on it a little bit. As soon as she heard how loud it was she was grinning ear to ear. She was cute as a button and her parents and I were amazed at her ability to closely mimic a couple rhythms I played in a "call/answer" little jam session with her.

Oh, also during my warm-up I laughed at the fact I made some money "performing" down by the river. A couple people from a nearby drinking establishment were watching me and this girl walks up and asks if I accepted money. I told her graciously I didn't want any money and that if they enjoyed what I was doing would be my "payment". Well, she didn't listen to me, dropped $8 dollars into my drum case and scooted off to join her friends to continue watching me. I guess that makes me a professional musician now.

For 2008 I'll be on staff at Music City Legend as percussion co-caption head. It's a natural progression but I really couldn't make the time commitment to be there at every rehearsal again next summer which would make marching difficult. I'll be there all winter and as much as I can in the summer but I know I can't be there 100% of the time. Also, with the Cavaliers Alumni Corps gearing up for a one year-only celebration of the corps' 60th anniversary, I knew I couldn't be a member in both due to conflicts. Unless I am truly not needed I'll probably end up jumping in on the end of the MCL snareline at DCA but that'll depend on a lot of factors.


My Jobee-Job

Career-wise, my job is going really well and feel great about going to work again. It's been so long that I felt that way. Every job has its quirks and problems but I'm finally somewhere my value is truly appreciated. Sure, I'm making more money but it's not necessarily a money thing like some companies try to break it down. There's an intangible quality of the workplace that you have to experience to know what it is I'm talking about.

Well, that's it for now I suppose. I'm sure more happened that I could put in here but it's already a long post and it's time to look towards the future. By the way, does anyone know who this guy is with Penny? :-p

See you all soon on the interwebs. Stay cool like Fonzy.

~Hulka

Music City Legend Open House

12.01.07
Cumberland University - Lebanon, TN
Visit www.musiccitylegend.org for details
Be there or be square

Coming soon... a much anticipated update to dis here blog. No seriously, I'm actually going to update my blog. ;-)